First, learn how much sleep you need. Generally, if you’re waking up tired, you’re not getting enough.

However, the gold standard of eight hours per night might not be right for you. A study from 2015 brought into question whether we need that magical number, so following your body is the best way to figure out the right rhythm. The only real guideline is to get as much sleep as you need to feel refreshed and energized the next day, and then do that every single night.

nov 5, 2018

International aid saves millions of lives but gains at risk: report

Reuters reports that international aid financing and innovation has helped to save nearly 700 million lives in the past 25 years, but those gains could be lost if momentum and political will wane.

A report by international aid advocacy group the ONE Campaign said the progress against preventable deaths and diseases since 1990 could stall, and even go into reverse, unless donor governments make new commitments to innovation and action.

The international community is “severely off track” to reach United Nations global health targets – agreed by 193 countries and known as the Sustainable Development Goals – by 2030, the report said.

It called on donors, governments and philanthropic organizations to “mobilize more money for health and deliver more health for the money”, arguing that such investments would pay off by boosting Africa’s economic output and stability.

The good news is that the world knows what it takes to succeed, said the report.

october 17, 2018

On the hunt for disease X

From Ebola to swine flu to HIV/Aids, viruses borne by animals have caused some of the most devastating epidemics in history. What will come next? In Sierra Leone, The Telegraph joined scientists working to find Disease X – a virus that is as yet undiscovered, but which could have the potential to ravage populations.

The virus hunters of Sierra Leone are part of an international network known as Predict, launched with $200 million funding from USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) and currently operating in more than 30 countries. The project has amassed tens of thousands of samples for analysis and discovered more than 900 new viruses. Predict is a forerunner of the more ambitious Global Virome Project – a 10-year plan to identify as many as possible of the estimated 1.6 million unknown viruses in birds and mammals. Of these, it is thought between 600,000 and 800,000 are zoonotic, meaning they have the potential to jump from animals to people. Earlier this year the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it was sufficiently concerned about what was lurking in the wild to include something called ‘Disease X’ in its global strategy plan, representing an as of yet undiscovered pathogen with the potential to spark a pandemic.

Virus hunting is a relatively modern preoccupation, pioneered in the mid-to-late 20th century by scientists such as Peter Piot (director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Karl Johnson, who first identified the Ebola virus in 1976.

october 8, 2018

An Ebola “perfect storm” is brewing in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The World Health Organization has determined that the chances the virus will spread both within DRC and to neighboring countries are “very high.”

The storm’s main ingredient: insecurity brought on by war, writes VoxNews. The outbreak epicenter is in North Kivu, a conflict zone that borders Rwanda and Uganda. More than a million people are displaced there, and armed opposition groups have been carrying out deadly attacks on civilians. The conflict even forced the WHO to temporarily halt its response in Beni, a city in North Kivu where 33 people have been infected with Ebola.

The WHO’s emergency response chief, Dr. Peter Salama, warned of “a series of grave obstacles” ahead of ending the outbreak.

Chief among them: “community resistance and mistrust.” This mistrust has caused some people who are eligible for Ebola vaccines and treatments to refuse them. Local politicians have also “exploited and manipulated” people’s Ebola fears ahead of a December election in the country.

“It’s arguable that this is the most difficult context in terms of responding to Ebola outbreak,” Salama said.

The worst-case scenario is that the Ebola virus continues to spread in DRC’s “no go” zones, and moves across DRC’s border to other countries in the region. If that happens, we could be facing a nightmare like the 2014-’15 Ebola epidemic, during which more than 11,000 people died. The only good news: This time, we have an effective vaccine.

october 3, 2018

Why do women still die in child birth?

Every other minute, a woman or girl dies as a result of pregnancy complications or childbirth. “Why has the global decline in maternal mortality stalled?” asks the Guardian.

The majority of deaths are from conditions that could have been prevented had women received the right medical care throughout their pregnancies and during birth. Severe bleeding and infections after childbirth are the biggest killers, but high blood pressure, obstructed labour and unsafe abortions all contribute.

The overwhelming majority of maternal deaths occur in developing countries.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 1990 and 2005, maternal mortality rates decreased by an average of 2.3% a year – way below the 5.5% needed to achieve the MDGs. And now the decline seems to have plateaued.

Why has the figure plateaued? When there is a high death rate, relatively simple interventions – raising awareness among women of the importance of seeking medical attention during pregnancy and childbirth, training local community health workers to spot signs of problems in labour – will bring fairly quick wins.

But moving the needle much further requires greater political will and more money. It requires more long-term and complex investments in the health system.

What next?

Strategic targeting of resources will be required to ensure that the poorest, most vulnerable women are better supported. Another of the sustainable development health targets is to ensure universal access to family planning services. There is also a standalone goal calling for gender equality, which specifically includes ending child marriage, and ensuring universal access to reproductive healthcare.

sept 25, 2018

TB is the deadliest disease

The latest report by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria shows both progress and challenges in the fight against epidemics, said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. Indicators confirm that if funding is insufficient, the three diseases could return to the forefront of global health. The number of HIV infections has dropped and continues to decline, albeit too slowly. Malaria cases are on the rise again. And tuberculosis remains the deadliest of the three pathologies.

Sept 14, 2018

Ebola Attacked Congo Again. But Now Congo Seems to Be Winning

The New York Times and local media in the DRC have upbeat news about the Ebola response there. New cases are dropping sharply, vaccination is going well and schools are about to open. But it is too soon to declare victory, experts say.

The month-old Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which emerged unexpectedly in a dangerous region and quickly soared to over 100 cases, now appears to be fading.

Only a handful of new cases appear each week, and the region's two treatment centers, full until recently, now have fewer than 30 patients in their 78 beds.

More than 3,500 contacts of known cases are being followed, more than 4,000 doses of vaccine have been given and officials feel hopeful enough to allow schools in the area — North Kivu Province, on the eastern border with Uganda — to open as usual on Monday.

However, it is far too early to relax, health experts warn.

Over the next few days (mid-September), many contacts will come out of their 21-day surveillance periods, and then health personnel will know to what extent they managed to break the transmission chain.

sept 6 2018

People with HIV twice as likely to develop heart disease than those without the virus

British researchers reviewedstudies from 153 countries and found that HIV-associated heart disease has more than tripled in the past 20 years, as more people with HIV live longer.

A study published in the journal Circulation shows that more than two-thirds of HIV-associated heart disease occurs in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific regions. More than 35 million people worldwide have HIV, and that number is on the rise. It's believed that HIV may cause inflammation of the blood vessels, which puts stress on the cardiovascular system.

It's also thought that HIV may contribute to heart disease by increasing fat levels in the blood and affecting the body's ability to regulate sugar levels, the researchers said.

See more on News24 of the global public health implications of this study.

august 20, 2018

HIV vaccine science is a story for the long haul. And an important one, with trial results expected in 2020 and 2021. Check out our bullet point list of must-knows about HIV vaccines in our new story entitled "What is the HIV vaccine story now?"

August 17, 2018

Tough times for medical teams in new DRC Ebola outbreak

The Ebola vaccine is to be used again in the latest disease outbreak in DRC.

Good news: better surveillance means faster detection of outbreaks; the vaccine is highly effective. Bad news: war and conflict will be a massive challenge for medical teams. Wishing them the best!

Roughly a week after celebrating the defeat of an Ebola outbreak in Équateur province, the DRC has four new confirmed cases of the disease 2500 kilometers across the country in North Kivu province. The DRC Ministry of Public Health says there is no indication of a link between the outbreaks and the decision to use the vaccine again was "common sense" due to the remaining doses in stock and the approval for the vaccine's continued study by scientific and ethical committees. The Équateur “trial” of the vaccine had no control group and cannot conclude whether it contributed to the end of that outbreak, but preliminary results show that none of the 3300 vaccinated people became infected.

Peter Salama, head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme in Geneva, Switzerland, and the lead official during the agency’s response to the just-ended outbreak said a vaccine campaign still faces several hurdles. Salama stressed that North Kivu province is a conflict zone and vaccination teams may have to travel with armed escorts. Contacts of cases, the primary people to receive the vaccine, now are known to be in 10 different locations, he said, further complicating attempts to reach them. “It’s going to be a very, very complex operation,” Salama said. “On the scale of degree of difficulty, trying to extinguish an outbreak of a deadly, high-threat pathogen in a war zone reaches the top of any of our scales.”

August 6, 2018

Internews Health is a focus area of Internews, an international non-profit organization. For more information on Internews, visit www.internews.org